Cincinnati Gateways
The goal of the Downtown Gateway Program was to enhance downtown Cincinnati’s "front doors" by not only constructing improvements in the areas seen by the most people, but by doing so in a way that provides a unique identity and sense of place for each location and the edges of the City. The method of achieving this was a public/private partnership both for capital funding and maintenance.
Downtown and City leaders have recognized the importance of welcoming visitors, workers, and residents to our "Most Livable City". Each gateway celebrates Cincinnati’s corporate and civic history while providing the framework to orient visitors, link downtown to the hillsides and inner neighborhoods, increase greenspace, and establish a strong sense of uniqueness and urban vitality.
The overall design concept is to provide a series of towers, campaniles, lighthouses, fountains, beacons, gateposts, and/or pylons that become focal points or centers of a network of "green" entryways and special places to Cincinnati. In addition, "green corridor" approaches are being created linking downtown Cincinnati to surrounding neighborhoods.
The Downtown Gateway Program encourages public/private partnerships to implement the entryway improvements. The result is a unified effort on design, funding, and maintenance that celebrates Cincinnati’s corporate and civic history.
So far, some of Cincinnati’s historic corporations and institutions like Fifth Third Bank, Procter and Gamble, the Verdin Bell Company, the Corbett Foundation, the Taft Museum, the Scripps Howard Foundation, St. Peter In Chains Cathedral, Cinergy, PNC Bank and Eagle Realty Group, a Western-Southern Company, to name a few, have committed to participation in the program.
The City of Cincinnati instituted the program in 1992 and has committed significant capital improvement funds towards the effort. Some of the gateways that have been completed are: Riverside, Queensgate, East Price Hill, Madisonville, Avondale.